Sources checked 11 November 2026. This page is about keeping labels with the company's coins so the books can be followed. It is education, not advice, and not a recommendation of any wallet. Examples assume a company 2 of 3 multisig. BIP 329 was a Draft informational BIP when we opened it.
Short answer
A label is a note the company attaches to a transaction, address or output in its wallet, for example "12 March 2026 purchase, batch A, director approval 4". Bitcoin itself does not store those notes. If the company changes coordinator software, the coins can be recovered from the descriptor and the keys, but the labels may not follow unless they have been exported. BIP 329 describes a plain-text, JSON Lines format for those labels. It is still a draft informational proposal, and wallet support varies. Use it, or another export the company can open, so the UTXOs in the wallet can be matched to the ledger.
Why labels matter for a company
Each UTXO in the company wallet is a coin the company can spend. The bookkeeping examples and the audit evidence guide both start from a complete list of acquisitions, disposals and fees. A label that travels with the coin, such as the purchase date, the invoice or the section 104 pool batch, is what lets an accountant or auditor match a particular output to a journal. Without labels, the company still has the coins, but the story of each coin may live only in one laptop or one coordinator.
BIP 329's motivation section makes the same point in protocol terms: there is a well defined way to move funds between wallets, but no defined standard to transfer labels applied to transactions, addresses, public keys, inputs, outputs or extended public keys. Labels may also record whether an output should be spendable in the wallet.
Source: Bitcoin Improvement Proposals: BIP 329: Wallet Labels Export Format (status: Draft, informational).
What BIP 329 specifies
BIP 329, titled "Wallet Labels Export Format", is an informational Bitcoin Improvement Proposal. When we opened it on 11 November 2026, its status was Draft. A draft informational BIP is a proposed format, not a finished standard and not a requirement. Wallet authors may implement all, part or none of it, and the text can still change.
Source: Bitcoin Improvement Proposals: BIP 329: Wallet Labels Export Format (status: Draft, informational).
The proposal uses JSON Lines: a UTF-8 text file with one JSON object per line, separated by a newline. Each object has a type (one of tx, addr, pubkey, input, output, xpub or spscan), a ref that identifies the record, a label, and optional origin and spendable fields. An output is identified by transaction id and output index, for example txid:0.
Source: Bitcoin Improvement Proposals: BIP 329: Wallet Labels Export Format (status: Draft, informational).
The format is deliberately not encrypted with the wallet seed, so a coordinator that never sees private keys can still import and export labels. That fits a company 2 of 3, where the coordinator is watch-only and signing happens on separate devices. See multisig for a company and the key ceremony.
A fictional company example
The figures below are illustrative only. They are not a real wallet.
A UK company holds bitcoin in a 2 of 3 multisig. On 12 March 2026 it received a withdrawal from its purchase provider to a fresh receiving address, as one output. The finance lead labels that output "2026-03-12 purchase, batch A, board minute 4, section 104 pool". When the company later consolidates several small outputs, or spends one of them, the label is what ties the coin back to the purchase journal and the pool record.
A BIP 329 line for that output would look like this, as a single line in a .jsonl file (the transaction id is fictional):
{"type": "output", "ref": "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa:0", "label": "2026-03-12 purchase, batch A, board minute 4, section 104 pool", "spendable": true}The same file can also carry a transaction label and an address label. Do not put recovery words, private keys or login secrets in a label file. The file is valuable because it explains the coins, and it should be stored with the same care as other financial records, alongside the descriptor and the key register, not as a substitute for them. See steel backups and the descriptor.
Matching labels to the books
A practical routine is:
- Label each new output when it arrives, with the date, the counterparty or batch, and the approval reference.
- Export labels after each purchase, sale, fee or consolidation, and whenever the coordinator is changed or upgraded.
- Keep the export with the period's bookkeeping pack, so an accountant can match outputs to the Xero or QuickBooks journals and to the UK pool or US lot record.
- When spending, use the labels to choose outputs on purpose (coin control), rather than letting the wallet pick coins whose history you cannot explain. See fees and UTXOs.
If a coordinator cannot export BIP 329, export whatever labelled list it does offer, or keep a simple spreadsheet with transaction id, output index, date, amount and description. The point is a record the company can open without that one application. BIP 329 is one way to do that, not the only way, and support should be checked on the coordinator's current documentation.
What this page does not do
- It does not name or recommend a coordinator or a signing device.
- It does not recommend a single signature wallet. The examples assume a company 2 of 3 multisig.
- It does not treat a draft BIP as a finished or required standard.
Read next
- Bookkeeping worked examples, journals, the UK pool and US lots.
- Audit evidence, proving what the company holds.
- Fees and UTXOs, consolidation and coin control.
- Xero and QuickBooks, where the journals live in the ledger.
Sources
Primary sources only. Each link was checked on 11 November 2026. Rules change, so confirm the current version with your adviser.
- Bitcoin Improvement ProposalsBIP 329: Wallet Labels Export Format (status: Draft, informational)
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